Nico Sturm has passed medical tests after taking a puck to the head Monday night, and the Wild forward is expected to miss only a few days.
Wild insider Ben Heckner reported that Sturm was recovering in hospital and is expected to rejoin the team soon.
He logged just 3:20 against Vegas before leaving the game.
The update lands with Minnesota still dealing with Brock Faber, who had surgery for a fractured skull after a puck caught him in a preseason game against Dallas, according to HockeyFeed.
Faber remains out indefinitely.
Hearing that a player passed his tests after a scare like that is like getting the call that the scan came back clean. You don't celebrate, you just finally breathe again.
The Wild should still take it slow. A few days is a timeline to respect, not one to beat.
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The Wild avoid a second Brock Faber nightmare
Minnesota won Monday's game 4-2, with Matthew Boldy, Joel Eriksson Ek, Maxim Shabanov and Danila Yurov scoring.
Jesper Wallstedt made 21 saves on 23 shots for the win.
The Wild are 4-1-1 and sit first in their division.
Kirill Kaprizov and Quinn Hughes have 9 points apiece.
Jared Spurgeon, still going at 36, has 5 points from the back end.
Minnesota has allowed just 11 goals through six games.
The injury list is getting crowded, though. Nick Foligno is out until at least Oct 18, and Marcus Foligno until at least Oct 15.
Bill Guerin may have to dip into his depth if those absences linger.
Sturm carries a $2,000,000 cap hit and hasn't registered a point in three games, but his value shows up in the details.
Does John Hynes have enough healthy bodies up front for the back half of a back-to-back in Winnipeg tonight?
After that, Minnesota hosts St. Louis on Thursday and Columbus on Sunday.
A few days is the best possible outcome after a scare like that. The Wild will take it, and they'd be smart not to rush a single one of those days.
Should the NHL make full face protection mandatory after the Faber and Sturm injuries?
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